Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

playing my marine friend in a game the other day. He used Drop Pod Assault and one of his Drop Pods landed in Difficult Terrain. He then proceeded to deploy his unit from the drop pod. I argued that since the drop pod arrived by Deep Strike both the Drop Pod and the unit must take a dangerous Terrain Test as per Deep Strike rules for arriving on Difficult Terrain. He argued that only the Drop Pod would have to take the test as the passengers did not deep strike, only the drop pod did.

who's right here?

If you accept the draft FAQ's ruling it's fairly explicit:

"Q: Do units disembarking from a Deep Striking Transport also count as entering play via Deep Strike?
A: Yes."

If you're not using the draft FAQ then it's less explicit, but there's a small piece of text in the Deep Strike rules that suggests both embarked unit and transport count as having arrived by Deep Strike:

"In the Movement phase during which they arrive, Deep Striking units may not move any further, other than to disembark from a Deep Striking Transport vehicle if they are in one."

Regardless though, while counting as having arrived by Deep Strike the embarked unit did not actually Deep Strike into Difficult Terrain; they simply disembarked into it, and are only required to take a Difficult Terrain test.

But isn't it the case that passengers on a transport can't be asked to take a dangerous terrain test?

Was he attempting to disembark into the terrain or not as I would have thought this makes a difference?

Our group generally rules that a model should make difficult terrain tests in such situation, not dangerous

I think your confusion is that you're correctly counting the transported unit as having arrived from Deep Strike, but are thinking that they're actively arriving from Deep Strike when they move. Units that arrive from Deep Strike into Difficult Terrain must make a Dangerous Terrain test, but units just moving through Difficult Terrain during a turn that they arrived from Deep Strike (perhaps, for example, by running after having arrived), do not.

In this case, at the moment that the Drop Pod arrives in Difficult Terrain, the transported unit is inside the Drop Pod. So, when it's deployed, only the Drop Pod makes the Dangerous Terrain test. Once finished being deployed, the transported unit must IMMEDIATELY disembark from the Drop Pod, however, this only happens once the Drop Pod is finished being deployed. The transported unit, which HAS arrived from Deep Strike, is no longer ARRIVING by Deep Strike. They already arrived. Now they're just moving during the same turn that they've arrived by Deep Strike. As such, they just have to make a Difficult Terrain Test, not a Dangerous Terrain Test.

Does this mean that legion of the damned taken from codex space marines can now ride drop pods?

peirceg wrote:
Does this mean that legion of the damned taken from codex space marines can now ride drop pods?

If taken in a FOC detachment with a pod taken as a fast attack choice; they always(since the latest codex) could